My son (age 12) is a caring, compassionate and highly empathic person. He also has a diagnosis of High Functioning Autism. Not only does he have some very lovely friends, he is also an amazing brother and son. He was using both the Oxford Children’s Dictionary and the Usborne Illustrated Children’s Dictionary for his English he came across these definitions:

”Autistic. adjective. having a condition that makes someone unable to communicate with other people. autism noun” Oxford University Press 2015

”Autistic (adj) Someone who is autistic has a condition that prevents them from communicating normally or from forming proper relationships with other people” Usborne Illustrated English Dictionary (2012)

These are not accurate definitions and are discriminatory in their wording.

“Can't form proper relationships” From personal experience this is wrong. The relationships my son has are lasting and genuine. However if they mean "proper" as superficial and to gain something (e.g. being popular, looking cool, being with the 'in crowd'), then he doesn’t have those.

Can't communicate normally. My son can hold intelligent conversations, unless what they mean by "normal" is the superficial and irrelevant conversation that society deems polite chat (generally to boost another persons ego).

The Usborne was printed 2012 and latest paperback edition. Usborne do have a later hardback edition with amended description which is more inclusive in the wording.  The Oxford copy is 2015 and latest available edition I can find.

There should be some form of regulation in terms of discriminatory language within educational literature.  These books are for children’s educational purposes, therefore should be free of ableism.  

This petition is to ensure that they revise their terminology (which Usborne have done in their latest edition) and also consult with expert agencies and professionals when defining such words that could have a profound affect on so many.